Tim wakes the next morning to an empty bed. He reaches for his glasses and looks at the clock. 9:45. Those pain pills had knocked him out for over twelve hours.
The last thing he remembered was sitting on the couch listening to Austin and Chris making plans on going trapping this morning.
He slowly gets out of bed and gets dressed. As he walks out of the bedroom, the living room was empty but he heard movement in the kitchen.
"Morning." Tim says as he sees Olena washing dishes and Jenika was drying them and putting them up.
"Well, good morning." Jenika smiles. "We were beginning to think you were going to sleep all day."
"How are you feeling?" Olena asks as she gets his breakfast from the microwave.
"A little better. Just really sore." Tim says as he fixes himself a cup of coffee. "Where is everybody?"
"Your husband is taking a shower and your brother and brother-in-law are still out running traps." Jenika answers.
"I just hope they be careful." Tim says as he takes a bite of his breakfast.
"They will. They know to stay together." Olena says as she sits down at the table with Tim.
"How are you feeling?" Tim asks.
"I feel great. Morning sickness has passed." Olena smiles.
"Bout time you getting up." Adam smiles as he walks into the kitchen.
"Those pills kicked my ass last night." Tim says.
"Chris and I had a great time trying to get you to bed." Adam chuckles as he kisses his husband cheek.
"I don't remember anything." Tim says, shaking his head.
"You were pretty out of it." Jenika smiles.
"Hey, yall! We're back!" Austin calls out as he and Chris walk in the front door.
"So how did it go?" Tim asks as they make their way to the kitchen.
"Smooth as a baby's bottom." Austin answers as he fixes him a glass of tea. "How are you feeling?"
"A little better." Tim answers. "Did yall catch anything good?"
"Didn't do too bad. A few beavers, muskrats and even got us another mink." Austin smiles. "We reset the traps."
"Well, let's get to cleaning." Tim says as he slowly gets up from the table.
"Are you sure you're able? Honey, you shouldn't overdo it." Adam says.
"I'm fine, Babe." Tim smiles at his husband. "I need to do something. I'm going nuts just sitting here."
They all walk out to the truck to check out the catch of the day.
"D*mn, those are some good size beavers." Tim says as he looks into the bed of his truck.
"Yep, I think we've found a gold mine as long as someone else doesn't find it." Austin says. "And look at the size of this mink."
"Most will respect another's trapping ground but there are some that don't." Tim says as he reaches for a beaver.
"Tim, those beavers are pretty heavy. Why don't you let us get them out of the truck? You might not outta be lifting that much right now." Chris says.
"He's right. You just let us get them out of the truck." Austin says as he hops up into the bed of the truck.
Tim sighs as he steps back. He hated feeling useless but they were right. He definitely didn't need to do anything that would break the stitches on his back.
As he slips on his gloves, he sees Adam putting on some gloves also.
"I wanna help." Adam smiles as he looks up and meets Tim's brown eyes staring at him in a questionable manner. "I wanna learn how to do this too."
"So, is this your sneaky way of making sure that I don't do too much?" Tim asks with a slight smirk on his lips.
"Uh huh." Adam smiles.
"Alright then." Tim chuckles as he reaches for a knife. "Let's get started."
Austin lays the mink on Tim's table. Tim was more or less the professional here and they didn't want any mistakes on the most expensive pelt.
Adam watches as Tim worked on the mink. He made it look so easy. Tim explained everything that he was doing. No wonder Chris caught on so fast. Tim was a great teacher.
Olena had gone back inside the house. She was feeling great and didn't want to take the chance of the blood and the smell to start making her sick.
Jenika slips on a pair of gloves and starts removing the unwanted parts and she kept their knives sharpened.
After cleaning the mink and one of the beavers, Tim's back was beginning to hurt a little so he decided to take a break and let Adam try his luck at cleaning one of the muskrats.
Under the watchful eye of his husband, Adam begins to carefully work on the muskrat. Tim would give him a few pointers along the way and would answer any questions that Adam had.
For Tim, it thrilled him that his Yankee husband was so eager to learn what he did for a living. Adam, like Chris, was a quick learner.
"How's that?" Adam asks with a huge grin as he holds up the pelt.
"Perfect." Tim smiles and kisses him on the cheek. Tim takes the hide from Adam. "Now we let it dry and then once it's dry we stretch it. I'll show you how to do that when it's ready."
"Can I do another one?" Adam asks.
"I'm one step ahead of you." Jenika laughs as she lays another muskrat on the table.
Adam picks up the knife and looks around at Tim.
"You're on your own." Tim chuckles.
"Okay, but stop me if I start to do something wrong." Adam says.
The sound of tires on gravel causes them all to look up from their work.
"You putting him to work, Foust?" Bob chuckles as he and Mark get out of the truck.
"I don't think it's work for him. I think it's enjoyment." Tim chuckles as he sits down on the tailgate of his truck. He still had a clear view of the work his husband was doing.
"You're not overdoing it are you?" Mark asks as he sits down next to Tim.
"Are you kidding? They're not going to let me do too much." Tim chuckles. "I've got too many eyes watching me."
"That's because we love you." Austin chuckles as he continues to work on the beaver laying on his table. His comment sounded a bit sarcastic even though he really meant it.
"Wow, yall got a nice haul this morning." Bob says as he looks into the bed of Tim's truck.
"Not too bad." Tim smiles. "Even managed to trap a mink."
"I've been trapping all my life and have never been able to get a mink and this is, what, the second one that you guys have caught?" Bob shakes his head. "What's your secret?"
"Location and a lot of prayer." Tim answers with a chuckle.
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